Austin Powers Wakes Up in the Science Fiction Universe of the Video Game ‘Mass Effect’ in an Amusing Mashup:

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch

Delightful.

Southlake school leader tells teachers to balance Holocaust books with ‘opposing’ views:

SOUTHLAKE, Texas — A top administrator with the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake advised teachers last week that if they have a book about the Holocaust in their classroom, they should also offer students access to a book from an “opposing” perspective, according to an audio recording obtained by NBC News.

Gina Peddy, the Carroll school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction, made the comment Friday afternoon during a training session on which books teachers can have in classroom libraries. The training came four days after the Carroll school board, responding to a parent’s complaint, voted to reprimand a fourth grade teacher who had kept an anti-racism book in her classroom.

Actual nazi behavior.

Vaping: FDA approves e-cigarette in US for first time - BBC News:

Explaining the FDA's reasoning, Mitch Zeller, its director for tobacco products said: "The manufacturer's data demonstrates its tobacco-flavoured products could benefit addicted adult smokers who switch to these products - either completely or with a significant reduction in cigarette consumption - by reducing their exposure to harmful chemicals."

This is a surprisingly sane ruling so far. I would rather vape than smoke, and I know I have felt better heath-wise since switching.

Tik Tok shows how social media uses transphobia as a gateway to further radicalization | Boing Boing:

Media Matters has found that Tik Tok's algorithm has identified that interest in transphobic videos is a signal that showing right-wing GQP style videos will generate even more views, incidentally, this helps radicalize folks.

Why saying “I don’t see race at all” just makes racism worse |:

In a way, color blindness makes the civil rights movement a victim of its own success: Legal segregation is over, so now it must be up to people of color to finish the work themselves. As Bonilla-Silva puts it, if racism is no longer actively limiting the lives of people of color, then their failure to achieve parity with whites in wealth, education, employment, and other areas must mean there is something wrong with them, not with the social systems that somehow always benefit white people the most.

Social scientists look to this question — whether you believe that racism is to blame for disparities or that Black people just need to work harder — to help them determine what they call racial resentment. And racial resentment, in turn, is a predictor of opposition to policies that would improve the economic security of millions.

BLURRED LINES + RAPE ME MASHUP - AMANDA PALMER & REB FOUNTAIN - YouTube:

BLURRED LINES + RAPE ME MASHUP

[youtube www.youtube.com/watch

Video shows Minneapolis police’s aggressive actions during unrest | MPR News:

The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office would eventually charge Stallings with attempted murder and assault. The 28-year-old African American Army veteran rejected a plea deal from prosecutors that included a 12-year sentence. 

Stallings — who has no criminal record and a permit to carry a handgun — took his case to trial. In their complaint, prosecutors said Stallings “did not comply and resisted” police. But body camera and surveillance video played in court contradicted those claims.

MPD is sick, as in there’s a cancer in it’s bones… It’s resisted every kind of reform, and doubled-down on bad behavior when pushed for accountability. The Mayor’s office has proven unable to affect change while they answer only to it.

Doing nothing is not an option - it hasn’t worked so far. I support the charter ammendment to reform the department, and to share authority of the new department between the city council and mayor’s office, because it’s constructive and it’s different, and the status quo isn’t working.

Evangelical White Fragility in action – WIL WHEATON dot NET:

And yet, as happens so frequently when I write something that right wing authoritarians get angry about, I’ve been locked out of my Facebook account, again, for what they claim is hate speech and bigotry. Clearly, someone or group of someones brigaded my post, and Facebook responded as it always does.

They should at least be honest, and call it what it is: White Evangelical Fragility can’t handle someone like me expressing these feelings and beliefs. It threatens everything they hold dear, and we just can’t have that, not in White Jesus America.

I realize it’s not an option for everyone, but everything from the past few days makes me more glad I stepped off from Facebook.

(7) John Kraus on Twitter: “I took the ProRAW file into Lightroom CC on the iPhone. Amazed at the detail I was able to extract. Wow! #ShotOniPhone t.co/S85uhoSLw…” / Twitter:

The Habit of Adequacy – Accidentally in Code:

I was practicing the habit, whilst thinking about habits, and it was an aha moment for me. I was thinking about what it means to honor the word habit, and I realized: I honor the word habit not on the days when it’s easy, when I feel energetic, or inspired, or whatever. I honor the word habit on the days that it is hard, but I show up anyway. The habit serves me on the days when I doubt that I can, but I show up and give myself the opportunity to surprise myself. To have it be great even though my expectations are low.

FAQ — Alan Wake:

Who is publishing Alan Wake Remastered? 

Epic Games Publishing is publishing the game.

Well thats a shame. After loving Control I would’ve taken a look at this if it were on Steam.

Leaked records open a ‘Pandora’ box of financial secrets | MPR News:

“I’ve never done anything illegal or wrong,” Babis added.

It’s funny how, when corrupt people makes the laws, they can make whatever they do legal…

Oath Keepers hack exposes law enforcement officers across US:

The statements are part of a massive trove of data hacked from the Oath Keepers website. The data, some of which the whistleblower group Distributed Denial of Secrets made available to journalists, includes a file that appears to provide names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of almost 40,000 members.

A search of that list revealed more than 200 people who identified themselves as active or retired law enforcement officers when signing up. USA TODAY confirmed 20 of them are still serving, from Alabama to California. Another 20 have retired since joining the Oath Keepers.

One man who filled out the form claimed he was a federal police officer and once worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency. 

These men are almost certainly just a small fraction of the law enforcement officers who joined the militia over the years, since the vast majority of people listed did not volunteer information about their employment. The leaked data does not indicate whether the people on the list are now dues-paying members.

Every person who can be verified to be a member of this org should be fired from law enforcement if still employed there. The two are mutually exclusive.

OLD VIDEO GAME ADVERTISEMENTS: Posts tagged rpg:

Watch a violent scuffle at a school board meeting after a man praises masks | Boing Boing:

After a man praises masks at a school board meeting in Eastern Carver County, Minnesota, things get ugly. The only accessories missing in the room are pitchforks.

The taint of the GOP, this is maybe an hour drive from where I sit.

19 of the top 20 Facebook page for American Christians are run by Eastern European troll farms | Boing Boing:

MIT Technology Review received an internal Facebook report from 2019 and learned that Eastern European troll farm "content was reaching 140 million US users per month—75% of whom had never followed any of the pages."

Five Ways Donald Trump Tried to Push a Coup - The Atlantic:

Last year, John Eastman, whom CNN describes as an attorney working with Donald Trump’s legal team, wrote a preposterous memo outlining how then–Vice President Mike Pence could overturn the 2020 election by fiat or, failing that, throw the election to the House of Representatives, where Republicans could install Trump in office despite his loss to Joe Biden. The document, which was first reported by the Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their new book, is a step-by-step plan to overthrow the government of the United States through a preposterous interpretation of legal procedure.

1. I love drop-cap typography, but it shouldn't break the actual text on the page.
2. For something this important, I wish the big sites had exceptions to their paywalls, because this should be public record.
3. Nothing #2, this may be paywalled when you try to read it. I normally wouldn't link to potentially paywalled content but ... Big Deal stuff.

US Constitution for sale | Boing Boing:

A first printing of the United States Constitution is headed to auction in November. It's one of just eleven known copies of the 500 printed for the Constitutional Convention and Continental Congress back in 1787, and the only one still privately-owned.

It’s probably good that Lord Dampnut is functionally broke, or we’d be seeing this show up on Faux News with a bunch of new ammendments in sharpie that suddenly prove he actually won.

I did a spit-take on the title, as it’s true in too many ways…

The Forgotten Craft & Community of Ice Harvesting:

Ice Ball is a short documentary that follows legendary polar explorer Will Steger and the community that he’s built up around harvesting ice from frozen winter lakes near Ely in northern Minnesota.

David Lynch’s Dune Kept Science Fiction Cinema Strange | Tor.com:

Lynch might not be a science fiction scholar. But Lynch understood the mystic and strange side of Herbert’s creation, and of so much brilliant science fiction literature that gets scrubbed on its way to a film adaptation. So yes, Lynch’s Dune is a mess with many flaws. But science fiction cinema would be a poorer place without it.

A talk show host on why rich republicans want us to hate the word “antifa” in witty video | Boing Boing:

While Republicans have turned "antifa" into a dirty word, with such success that most on the left won't go near it, the San Francisco KGO commentator does the opposite, embracing it with gusto. He reminds us what fascists are (when the rich sector of a party "changes the law, making it impossible for you to vote"), then points to the poor sector of the same party: "Now these Republicans, I don't know what the fuck they're thinking." This group, he explains, are bamboozled by the anti-anti-fascist movement of the right to their own demise."

9 Surprisingly Accurate Hard Sci-Fi Movies That You Can Stream Tonight:

But where some sci-fi is more 'fi' than 'sci', hard science fiction is grounded in scientific realism. These are nine of our favorite hard sci-fi movies that you can stream right now, each of which marries compelling stories with fascinating details and accurate information.

Andy To’s gorgeous 4K iPhone 13 Pro video shot in Mexico City:

This is some breathtaking footage. Make sure you watch in full screen, at the highest resolution your setup will support.

The American Style of Quotation Mark Punctuation Makes No Sense:

When faced with this contrast, the proper reaction is to recoil in horror at the first approach, and to look approvingly on the second. In the sentence beginning with It is only …, the quotation is a part of the sentence, and the sentence contains the quoted word.

This is what gaslighting sounds like. – WIL WHEATON dot NET:

I am here to tell you that you are enough. That WE are enough. It’s not us. It was never us. It was always them.